High Dynamic Range
Experiments,

Part 4: Uvas Canyon County
Park

Continuing
from part 1,part
2, and part 3, here
are more experiments using Photomatix to generate HDR pictures. These
pictures were taken with an Olympus E-510 SLR and a tripod in Uvas
Canyon County Park on 1/23/10. The lighting was soft, and the
dynamic
range was low, so HDR was not necessary for dynamic range compression.
The purpose of these experiments is to take advantage of the
tone-mapping features of Photomatix to see if I could create dreamy,
surreal
landscapes, not necessarily realistic ones. The end results have
enhanced, saturated colors with a painterly appearance, somewhat like a
fantasy illustration. PhotoImpact was used to adjust the size,
brightness, contrast, and sharpness.

These were taken with my Olympus E-510 SLR and a tripod. Most of them
were taken using the aperture-priority setting at or near f/22, using
the
+/-1-stop auto-bracketing and 3-shot burst mode. Shutter speeds were as
long as several
seconds, which caused the water to blur, giving it a soft, gauzy
appearance.

Swanson Creek close to the park
entrance

Moss-covered rocks along the
trail leading to Uvas Creek

Uvas Creek

The confluence of Swanson Creek (left) and Uvas Creek
(right)

The confluence of the creeks
from farther up Swanson Creek.

This waterfall on Swanson Creek
is not on the park map. This is made up of exposures taken at 0.77,
1/2, and 1.6 secs at f/20, ISO 400.

The falls from a different
angle.

Swanson Creek below the falls

Swanson Creek and Trail

Water flowing over rocks on
Swanson Creek

Moss-covered rocks and cascades
on Swanson Creek

Park road bridge over Swanson
Creek

Granuja Falls, landscape
orientation

Granuja Falls, portrait
orientation

Lower Black Rock Falls

Upper Falls

Cascade below Upper Falls

Upper Falls from higher up on
the trail. This was made from 3 pictures taken at 1/2 sec, 1 sec, and 2
secs at f/22, ISO 400. The following 2 pictures show the same scene
taken with
different shutter speeds.

This is a
conventional picture, taken at 1/40 sec, f/5, ISO-400. Note how the
water is frozen in motion by the relatively fast shutter speed. This is
about as slow as you can hand-hold a shot without motion blur,
depending on the focal length of the lens and how good the image
stabilization in the camera is. This picture was not used to make the
previous HDR picture.

This is a
conventional picture, taken at 2 secs, f/22, ISO-400. Notice how the
water has a more silky appearance. This slow shutter speed requires a
tripod. This picture was used in the previous HDR picture.

Basin Falls

Upper Black Rock Falls,
landscape orientation. This was late in the day in a shady canyon, so
the light was lower. This was made of exposures of 1.3, 2.5, and 5 secs
at f/22, ISO 400.

Upper Black Rock Falls,
portrait orientation

Aperture-priority
is the typical
mode for HDR shots since it keeps the depth-of-field constant, which is
why I used it. However, with moving water, the shutter speed has a
greater effect on the appearance of the water, so I could have used
shutter-priority. Using very long shutter speeds means the aperture
will be very small, and the depth of field will be very deep, so it
should not be an issue. The exposure times I used seemed to be long
enough, but if I wanted to, I could have used even longer exposures by
setting the ISO sensitivity to a lower value and using a polarizing or
neutral density filter to cut the light down. Those are subjects for
future experiments.